By Harry Ashcroft

11th February 2025

This week, I had the absolute honour of speaking to artistic duo Martin Green and James Lawler, known together as DuoVision. They currently have three ongoing exhibitions: Outlaws at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London, The Holly Johnson Story at the Museum of Liverpool, and the focus of my interview with them, For Your Pleasure: 15 Years of DuoVision at the OpenEye Gallery.

The exhibition uses photography and film to “reflect on and celebrate the fledgling queer club culture of the 90s in the UK”. Martin spoke to me about his past experiences as a DJ and running the London club Smashing in the 90s, as well as how he and James met and began creating exhibitions together. They felt that certain artists had been neglected, overlooked and gone out of fashion despite contributing to the UK’s cultural landscape, and for them, DuoVision was about showcasing these artists to an inter-generational audience.

“(Smashing) was a club for misfits… and a lot of gay misfits – but a lot of those misfits ended up having huge pop careers”

– Martin Green, one half of DuoVision

We discussed the cultural movements of the 90s and the ‘straightness’ of the arts compared to the preceding decades. Martin and James explained the devastating effect that the AIDS epidemic had on queer culture in the UK and the importance of clubs in providing connections and safe spaces for these marginalised communities.

“Combination therapy (for HIV) didn’t come in until 1995… the first part of the 1990s was still a difficult time – you still had a Tory government… (and) the antithesis to that – all those awful things – was going out and clubbing”

– James Lawler, one half of DuoVision

These marginalised and LGBTQ+ communities experienced prejudice from both the Conservative government and the mainstream culture and it was simultaneously fascinating, upsetting and hopeful to hear Martin and James recount these experiences combined with the other factors listed above.

We moved on to the methods of experiencing art and the way this has shifted with the advent of new technology. James touched on their method of printing large pictures to immerse audiences in the art, a practice that forces people to reflect and react to art together. I found the entire discussion extremely captivating, and I like to think James and Martin felt the same.

This article is an adapted version of a Politics in Motion radio interview. You can listen to the whole interview on Spotify and below.